“Be strong, Rei…”

Father and mother stood in front of Rei, smiling gently from the distance in the darkness.

“Pa… ma…!” Rei called out to them from where he stood in the light. He tried desperately to take a step forward, to go to his mother and father, but he was unable to, “Don’t leave me here alone…!”

“I love you so much, baby…” Mother said to Rei.

“Ma…” Rei croaked, seeing their figures moving further and further away, “Please… I can’t…”

Their figures disappeared, leaving Rei all alone in the light.

Rei’s eyes snapped open, and he found himself heaving and sweating, excruciating pain all over his body. He couldn’t move a single muscle from his head down, fixed to a bed on the side inside a dimly lit hut.

Using all of his strength to lift his head slightly to look down at his body, Rei saw that his body was covered all over in blood soaked bandages, but through the gaps where the bandages wasn’t able to cover, he could see terrible burns, skin missing with exposed flesh.

Then, Rei noticed warmth coming from his side and he glanced over, seeing a small fireplace set up in the middle of the hut. Staring at the fire, Rei felt his breath quickening, hearing the screams of the villagers being burnt alive inside his mind.

A figure stepped into the hut, dropping something on the ground with a thud, before taking a brief look at Rei and walking over to the fireplace to douse it off.

The figure was silent whilst they put out the fire, and Rei turned his head weakly to his side to look at the figure.

It was the girl that had saved him.

Long flowing silver hair fell to her back, a pair of vivid scarlet red eyes, and a beautiful moonlit face with slender features. Covering the girl and hiding her clothes was a worn out white cloak that had since turned a mix between grey and white from frequent travels across the lands.

An air of quiet gracefulness emitted from the girl that appeared in her late teens, their every movement even when putting out the fire seemed to be composed and flow naturally.

In Rei’s mind, the memory of the girl dancing in the air, slicing blood out of the bandits flashed for a brief second, and Rei thought back to how beautiful she had looked then.

“T, thank you…” Rei whispered to the girl, feeling his throat dry and breaking the silence inside the hut, “for saving me…”

The girl continued to put out the fire quietly, mixing the wet wood with the remaining ashes of the fire.

“My name is Rei,” Rei said, “What is your name…?”

The girl didn’t respond, and for a moment, Rei thought she wasn’t going to speak to him at all.

“Zilver.” The girl said simply, her voice was as elegant and graceful as her appearance; soft and gentle, but with a clear firmness underneath.

Rei waited to see if the girl would say anything more, but she didn’t, and he spoke again.

“I… I lost everything because of those bandits…” Rei said, looking up at the ceiling of the hut, “my village…” he paused, “my parents…” Then, he turned his head to look at Zilver again, “Thank you for killing those bandits…”

Zilver was quiet, prodding at the ashes with a stick before she dropped it, and rose to her feet, glancing down at Rei with her scarlet eyes.

“I didn’t kill the bandits for you.” Zilver said, her face held an emotionless look, cold like ice despite her beauty. “It was my task, I received a bounty from it, and you simply happened to be there. That is all there is to it.”

Zilver turned away from Rei, walking to the side of the hut where she had dropped something down from earlier.

“What did you mean by bounty? What do you do?” Rei asked.

“Assassin.” Zilver replied.

Rei heard the sound of something ripping, and Zilver picked herself up from the ground. She walked over to Rei and stared down at him whilst holding the raw meat of a boar in one hand, blood staining both her hands.

“If those bandits had not been my targets, I would had let them kill you.” She said coolly. “So don’t take kindly to me.”

“…”

Rei fell silent for a moment.

“But you still saved me.” Rei said, “That’s why you bandaged me. I’m alive because of you.”

Hearing this, Zilver didn’t have a response.

She tossed the raw meat next to Rei’s head on the bed, then turned around, heading out of the hut and stopping at the door.

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“Eat up,” She said, “You have no one left in this world to care for you anymore. So I will look after you until you recover from your wounds and are of age.”

“T… thank you…”

“If you do not listen to me, I will kill you.” Zilver said. “Under my care, you obey by my rules. If you don’t like it, then you are free to leave on your own.”

Then the door closed, leaving Rei alone in the hut.

~x~

Despite Zilver’s apparent coldness and indifference towards Rei, the girl continued to look after and nurse Rei to health, changing his bandages, giving him food and water, starting a fire to keep him warm at night. She did all this without speaking more than what is needed to Rei, usually being just to answer Rei’s persistent questions.

Sometimes she would disappear for days, even once going away for an entire week, leaving enough food and water inside the hut for Rei to survive, but always Zilver would return to the hut to look after Rei again.

After six months had passed, Zilver had grown to be more nicer towards Rei although still cold and direct, and Rei was finally able to walk on his own again with his movement impaired by the severity of his wounds that were still healing.

Zilver had disappeared without a word for three days now, and Rei had been practicing walking again, going back and forth from the bed to the door inside the hut.

Then, Rei heard the sound of quiet footsteps on snow he had been listening carefully for, and he grabbed his father’s sword that Zilver had laid on the side of the bed before rushing out the door.

Glancing around at the snowy forest that surrounded the hut, Rei saw Zilver trudging her way towards the hut, wearing her thick traveller’s cloak as usual, the hood covering her head.

“Zilver!” Rei called out, then he walked a circle in the snow, “Look, I can walk again!”

Zilver walked up to Rei, stopping to watch him for a moment, and for the first time, Rei saw the faintest of smile lighting up the ends of her petite lips on her moonlit face.

“Y, you smiled…!” Rei stopped, glancing at Zilver in surprise.

The smile disappeared, replaced by a frown on Zilver’s face, “It’s not polite to stare at one’s face, Rei.” She said, “Did I not teach you this before?”

Rei was still stunned by Zilver’s smile from earlier.

Zilver’s eyes moved down to the sword that Rei was holding with both his hands, “So,” She said, “Are you planning to go seek vengeance now?”

Rei followed Zilver’s eyes down to his father’s sword, and his face darkened, “You told me that the bandit with the red plated armour had gotten away that night my village burned down… The one that had been the bandits’ captain and led them to slaughter everyone in the village…”

“He wasn’t part of my contract,” Zilver said, watching Rei’s face, “So I let him go on that night.”

Rei raised the sword up slowly, holding it steadily out in front of him to stare at the weary steel of the blade.

“I have to avenge my parents, Zilver.” Rei said, staring at his reflection on the blade. “Even now, I still hear their screams every night in my dreams. I think they want me to avenge them, to kill the bandit in the red plated armour so that they can rest in peace.”

“…”

Zilver was silent for a few seconds, “That’s not what they want, Rei,” she said, “That’s what you want.”

“Tch…” Rei lowered his sword, glancing at Zilver with bitter eyes, “You don’t know my parents, Zilver. I know what they want.”

Zilver didn’t respond, and she started walking to the door of the hut.

“You went and killed someone just then, right?” Rei asked her, his eyes following him as she walked to the hut, “That’s why you keep disappearing all the time for days without saying anything. You told me you’re an assassin before, so you must kill people for a living.”

She continued ignoring Rei as she walked past him.

“I want you to teach me how to fight. How to kill another person…!” Rei called out to her, “Please, Zilver!” He got down on his knees in the snow, facing Zilver’s back, “I’m really grateful for you saving my life, but I have nothing left to live for anymore except this…!”

Rei stared down into the snow, feeling tears welling up in his eyes, blurring his vision, “Everything… and everyone I loved and knew… are dead…” He said, “And the one that did all this… is just walking around freely… I can’t… I can’t allow that! I need to avenge my parents, Zilver!! I beg you!! Please…!!”

He planted his forehead to the snowy ground, bowing on his knees and arms, tears now beginning to fall from his eyes, “You’re the only that I can ask, Zilver…!”

He wept quietly to himself in the snow for a moment, then upon feeling a presence standing over him, he glanced up, seeing Zilver standing in front of him with her usual emotionless face.

“Get up.” Zilver said, her vivid scarlet red eyes staring down at him.

Quickly, Rei scrambled up to his feet.

“Raise your sword.” She said.

Giving her a confused look, Rei raised his sword, holding onto the handle with both hands due to its weight.

Suddenly, Zilver moved forward like a lightning bolt, her cloak flying in the air for a brief second to reveal the white flowing outfit she wore underneath, and Rei heard the sounds of metal slicing upon metal, twin blades coming out of nowhere from the sides of Zilver.

His eyes barely recognised Zilver slashing at his sword with one of her twin blades, and he flew backwards, his father’s sword shooting out of his hand and stabbing itself into a nearby tree on the side with an explosive thud.

He was airborne for several seconds, flying backwards powerlessly in the air with such force that he lost all sense of direction before he felt his body hitting the snowy ground, bouncing off multiple times before rolling to a stop.

Then something stabbed down at the snow next to his neck and Rei stared up, seeing Zilver towering above him, holding one of her twin blades down next to his neck. The sword gleamed under the sunlight with a silver shine, strange incantations running along the edge of the medium lengthed blade that was slightly curved.

“That would have been your death there.” Zilver said, her scarlet red eyes stared down at Rei coldly, "That's what it means to kill someone."

Rei glanced up into Zilver’s face and felt something he had never felt from her before; fear. A terrifyingly murderous aura emitted from Zilver that chilled him down to the end of his spine. Her usual cold face suddenly appeared dark and ominous as though it was saying that she wouldn’t even blink an eye whilst killing him.

Rei swallowed, pausing for a moment.

“Rei?” Zilver said, staring into his face.

Suddenly, Rei lunged forward, letting out a yell as he tried to throw a punch at Zilver’s face.

Immediately, Zilver spun around at lightning speed with a kick that dug into the side of his ribs, knocking all the air out of his lungs and sending him flying like a bullet to the side where Zilver had kicked him, smashing a tree with his back and shaking the entire tree, before his body crumbled down to the ground, unable to move.

“Rei…!” Zilver called out, running over to check on Rei’s condition.

“I, I’m fine…” Rei spat out blood, struggling to get up but was not able to, as he fell on his back, staring up at the sky.

Zilver sighed, standing over Rei with a hand raised to her head.

“At this rate, you’re never going to heal…” She said.

Rei forced a grin at Zilver weakly, “Then, I guess you’ll look after me forever, huh, Zilver?”

Zilver gave him an unamused look, before lifting Rei up from the snow on her back to carry him back to the hut.